The Great Controversy The Great Controversy | Page 241

it, or even to speak concerning it, was to incur the penalty of death by
the stake. To pray to God in secret, to refrain from bowing to an image,
or to sing a psalm, was also punishable with death. Even those who
should abjure their errors were condemned, if men, to die by the sword;
if women, to be buried alive. Thousands perished under the reign of
Charles and of Philip II.
At one time a whole family was brought before the inquisitors,
charged with remaining away from mass and worshiping at home. On
his examination as to their practices in secret the youngest son answered:
“We fall on our knees, and pray that God may enlighten our minds
and pardon our sins; we pray for our sovereign, that his reign may be
prosperous and his life happy; we pray for our magistrates, that God
may preserve them.”—Wylie, b. 18, ch. 6. Some of the judges were
deeply moved, yet the father and one of his sons were condemned to the
stake.
The rage of the persecutors was equaled by the faith of the martyrs.
Not only men but delicate women and young maidens displayed
unflinching courage. “Wives would take their stand by their husband’s
stake, and while he was enduring the fire they would whisper words of
solace, or sing psalms to cheer him.” “Young maidens would lie down in
their living grave as if they were entering into their chamber of nightly
sleep; or go forth to the scaffold and the fire, dressed in their best apparel,
as if they were going to their marriage.”—Ibid., b. 18, ch. 6.
As in the days when paganism sought to destroy the gospel, the blood
of the Christians was seed. (See Tertullian, Apology, paragraph 50.)
Persecution served to increase the number of witnesses for the truth.
Year after year the monarch, stung to madness by the unconquerable
determination of the people, urged on his cruel work; but in vain. Under
the noble William of Orange the Revolution at last brought to Holland
freedom to worship God.
In the mountains of Piedmont, on the plains of France and the shores
of Holland, the progress of the gospel was

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